The Manchester United forward was starved of service as United went down 3-1 to their fierce rivals, a result which leaves them 19 points behind the Merseysiders who sit at the top of the table.

Xherdan Shaqiri came off the bench to score twice for the Reds, after a Jesse Lingard strike had earlier cancelled out Sadio Mane's opener.

Lukaku was involved in the move for Lingard's goal, crossing in the ball which was fumbled by Alisson into the path of the England man, but other than that he failed to get any change out of Virgil van Dijk or Dejan Lovren all afternoon.

Van Dijk "bullied" Lukaku (Image: Action Images via Reuters)

Lukaku failed to have much impact on the game (Image: PETER POWELL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

And Shearer picked apart his performance.

"After two minutes, Virgil van Dijk outmuscled Romelu Lukaku to big cheers from around Anfield - then Lukaku didn’t want to know," Shearer wrote in The Sun .

"He was bullied out of it by Van Dijk and Dejan Lovren and that’s nowhere near good enough.

"By the end, he was basically hiding. When you come off you need to be able to say, ‘We gave that a good go’.

Shearer picked apart Lukaku's display (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

"Someone the size and strength of Lukaku should not be bullied.

"Outclassed, perhaps, but bullied into submission? Never. Set up that way, United needed a focal point, someone to hold it up, to be big and strong — he didn’t offer any of that."